The Lunar trilogy

Od EXODU naszego dni księżycowych siedemset i siedem. O, Ziemio! O Ziemio Utracona!

Since our exod, of lunar days seven hundred and seven. Oh Earth! Oh Earth Forfeited!

This ending blew my mind as a young kid which was when I first read the novel, around 9 or 10. It was such an innocuous looking book It absolutely blew my young mind with atmosphere and themes that I barely could grasp. When I read it again when I was an adult it still blew my mind.

It's Dune half a century before Dune.

To think that the book was written in 1903 (not 1911 like you said)!!! I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. It's a forgotten masterpiece from the year (incidentally) when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published his theoretical model for a rocket.

That being said once you read the book the film becomes unbearable. I can't understand how you can disrespect the source so much. It is horrendous. It is insulting. It is a pale imitation of the original. But you probably won't understand what I am talking about until you read the book.

The movie is practical. Shot in the outdoors and covering the entire trilogy with a single script. Filled with director's own take on the philosophy of the novels. While the subsequent books take place on a hypothetical dark side (with atmosphere) the first book describes the journey to the other side is a gloomy, psychological story taking place on the desolate lunar surface in steampunk-like machines with a bunch of explorers with a one-way ticket to the moon where they arrive via a giant cannon dug a mile into the earth somewhere in Africa near the equator.

If you get around the idea of alternative physics (again - the book is from 1903) it is actually amazing visually and I had dreams and nightmares after reading it. The film made me angry. Irrationally so. I don't much care for it. The book on the other hand is among my favourites and not just because it was so influential. It's Dune half a century before Dune, written in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary. It's about people marooned on the Moon creating a new society from scratch, so far away from their home. If this book was written in English it would have been a timeless classic.

The novels are in public domain but translating it is an effort of time and skill. I'd love to do it but I might not have the time necessary on my hands especially if people are already looking to make a quick buck on it.

BTW if you liked the style and themes of the film try out Piotr Szulkin - another Polish director famous for sci-fi with philosophical themes. In particular I recommend "Wojna swiatow - nastepne stulecie" (War of the worlds - next century) which is a loose adaptation of Wells that is a political commentary on the period. There were some great low-budget movies that were a very apt political commentary. Once communism and censorship disappeared the quality of creative work fell so low that I don't even want to think about it.

Interestingly enough, there was a post about a week or so ago where someone who said they were a publisher was looking for a Polish translator to get an English version made.